Shrieks of appreciative mirth followed this deftly shot arrow, for it was a well-known fact that Ollie Grant, the pet of the school, was an easy-going little body, very prone to allow her wardrobe to get in a sad plight and then throw herself upon the mercy of others, to patch her up, in the event of an emergency.

But Miss Ollie was equal to the occasion.

“Really, Sadie, that would help you out, wouldn’t it? and save me a lot of trotting back and forth,” she demurely responded, though the dimples played a lively game of hide-and-seek in her plump cheeks.  “There’s such a love of a lace jacket in her second drawer, girls; my eyes water with envy every time I get a glimpse of it; and a few of those ravishing stocks that you’ve been laying in of late wouldn’t come amiss.  There’s that lavender satin waist, too, you bought at Jerome’s the other day.  I know I should look perfectly killing in it; and—­oh! ye Hiltonites!—­she has just bought six of the sweetest corset covers you ever laid eyes on; think of it!—­six!  She could spare three just as well as not, and I’m sure she has at least a dozen pairs of silk stockings, while"- -with a doleful sigh—­“I don’t own a blessed one.  Then there are ribbons and laces, fans and handkerchiefs galore.  Don’t you think it would be an act of mercy if I would agree to take some of these superfluities off her hands, rather than have them ruthlessly crushed into half their allotted space?  And—­”

“Ollie!  Ollie!—­what an incorrigible little tease you are!” laughingly interposed Miss Minot, as she playfully tweaked the girl’s ear.  “I wonder how long the things would last you if you had them all!”

“Oh, probably two or three times wearing around, providing they didn’t come to mending before that,” mused the “Pet,” with a speculative look in her blue eyes, but with a quiver of the dimples that evoked another paroxysm of laughter from her audience.  “But I say, Sadie,” she went on with the next breath, “Miss Minturn is a downright sweet-looking girl, and I’ll wager a--a darning needle against a pair of those silk stockings you’ll find her O. K. Maybe she’ll let you have an extra drawer and a hook or two in the closet.”

“I don’t feel very hopeful, so I won’t take you up,” sighed Sadie; “for when I came in from my walk I saw a big trunk, with ‘K.  M.’ on it, in the hall, and it looks to me as if I—­I’m destined to go through a different kind of ‘cramming’ process this year, in addition to the usual one.”

This self-inflicted shot now turned the laugh again upon the speaker, for it was an open secret that the Southern heiress dearly loved her ease and took it, up to the last moment, then had to “cram for all she was worth” to get ready for “exams.”

While this chatter and fun were going on in the recreation room, Katherine Minturn had been conducted to the study of Prof.  Seabrook, by whom she was received with his customary courtesy.